World net electricity consumption will nearly double from 2003 to 2030 according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy. Much of the electricity is expected to be used for providing lighting to industrial, commercial, and residential areas. There generally has been a trend to conserve electricity in lighting applications. The adoption of energy-efficient technologies help conserve electricity, thereby slowing the growth in both the “base demand” and “peak demand,” which are both components of the overall electricity demand. Base demand is the average demand for electricity, while peak demand occurs when the demand for electricity is the greatest. Reducing either type of demand is desirable, but a reduction in peak demand generally is more valuable because of the relatively high unit cost of the capacity required to provide the peak demand.
Many facilities, such as commercial, residential, industrial, institutional, and warehouse facilities, typically use or are being modified to use more energy-efficient lighting devices. For example, high intensity fluorescent (“HIF”) light sources consume less electricity in comparison to other less efficient types of light sources, such as incandescent and high intensity discharge (“HID”) bulbs. In another example, light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) consume less electricity than a HIF light source.
Many facilities also attempt to reduce electricity consumption by using additional energy-saving technologies, such as occupancy sensors. Occupancy sensors monitor a desired area to determine if the area is being occupied by a person and are capable of controlling the on/off functions of lighting and/or other electrical devices, such as heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) units and other devices that consume electricity. In some examples, the occupancy sensor sends a signal to the lighting devices to turn on one or more of the lights in the monitored area when the monitored area is occupied. The occupancy sensor sends a signal to the lighting devices to turn off one or more of the lights in the monitored area when the monitored area becomes unoccupied or when no motion is detected for a predetermined period of time.